The proliferation of integrated circuits continues to place increasing demands on the turnaround time for customized circuit design. An ever-increasing number of microprocessors are being added to many devices, components and architectures, which never utilized microprocessors. The increase in overall microprocessor demand has lead to an increased demand for specialization of microprocessors to handle new additional tasks or to effectuate sophisticated operations for a given environment.
Often the general process of a given chip is known while the finer details of the functionality of the chip are not known until late in the engineering process. Customers who buy bulk batches of microprocessors base some of the decision regarding chip design, on consumer feedback and polls. This had lead to a system where a customer may desire attributes in a microprocessor that were not fully elucidated when the design process began. To aid in the speed in which a given microprocessor may be customized and produced, engineers often utilize automated computer aided design techniques.
Mesh or grid architectures are popular approaches to the distribution of critical global signals on a chip. They may include clock signals, power and ground stripes. Late stage engineering changes often include changes in the routing structures and system design of a microprocessor. This may be an expensive, labor and time consuming process.